Coming into the 2021-2022 season the Cincinnati Bearcats are known to have one of the best secondary’s in all of college football behind All-American Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner and Coby Bryant. These two have been mentioned in talks of the Top 5 tandems in all of college football ahead of the 2021 season. The Bearcats are coming off one of their best seasons ever and the secondary on defense played a very big role for the success in 2020, behind veteran leaders Darrick Forrest, Jr. and James Wiggins. The main thing about this defense though that not many people know is the secondary for this team is very deep overall.
Coming into 2021 though, the Bearcats seem to be bringing a whole new level of intensity at Camp Higher Ground and they’re making it known very early in camp. This team has mentioned they have a sour taste in their mouth after the last second lose to Georgia in the Chic-Fil-A Peach Bowl and are looking to overcome that unfortunate ending. Losing Forrest and Wiggins to the NFL, people would think this team lost most of their defensive stars, but that isn’t the case one bit. This team have a few guys who have seen action in the past when their numbers where called and showed they are capable of taking over that spot as a leader for guys like Wiggins and Forrest.
The first person whose stepped up on defense is junior cornerback Justin Harris. Many of you may know his name as he was the Bearcat who came out and watched the trophy ceremony versus Georgia and is using that for motivation ahead of 2021. Harris has seen a lot of time on special teams his first two seasons as a Bearcat, where he led the team in tackles on special teams with eight tackles. The junior is having a tremendous camp and is someone whose really stood out to me, He has great speed, has not only very vocal within the defense, but has a leader off the field as well, Harris is always making sure he’s giving 110% on every single play. We saw the other day after he ran a perfect route to force a near interception, but the ball just went through his hands, Harris immediately got down on the sideline and started to do pushups for dropping that interception. Harris is a name to keep an eye on because he’s having a very good camp so far and continues to impress everyday. He’s a guy who has a high motor and loves to use his quick speed to give receivers some problems, also has great reads on the ball and the ability to make the tackle plays a big factor for him as well.
